Saturday, July 19, 2014

National Conscience, or National Enabler? Thoughts on the Conflict Between Russia and Ukraine and the Role of Orthodox Christians

Russian Separatist fighter in Ukraine

Christianity is once again playing an all-too-familiar
and unhappy role in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Russia, of course, denies any involvement or
any responsibility for the events and violence occurring within the borders of
its western neighbor, including the shooting down of Malaysian Airlines flight
17 two days ago. Despite the fact that
so-called separatists have been trained and, dare we say, deployed from Russian
territory, and despite the fact that these separatists have been armed with
increasingly sophisticated Russian weaponry rolled across the Russian-Ukrainian
frontier in brazen view of the world, and despite the fact that the Russian
leadership and press has voiced full-throated support of the ‘rebels’ and
inflammatory denunciations of the Ukrainian government – despite all of this,
Mr. Putin, Russia’s president, has denied any involvement with and any
responsibility for the chaos, bloodshed and destabilization caused by what,
regardless of the denials, are his proxies in the west. The same appears to be true in this most
recent horrific incident. Given the
amount of disinformation, denial, and recrimination already dominating the
media/propaganda wars swirling around this brazen mass murder, we may never be
able to say with absolute certainty who did it and why. So hardened are the perpetrators that they
would prefer it this way.

In the meantime, both Russia and Ukraine have huge
Orthodox populations, and their hierarchs have varying degrees of influence
within their respective states, be it formal or informal. Sadly, the Church in Russia has given the impression
to the rest of the world that it is little more than the lap dog of the Russian
authorities. If they have attempted to
introduce a Christian perspective to the political dialogue at the Kremlin, it
has not been evident to anyone outside its gates. The Russian president and his people have,
regardless of their morality, been very skillful at revving up Russian feelings
of patriotism and pride, i.e. nationalism.
And while this is not a bad thing in and of itself, history tells of one
bloody tale after another when leaders of nations or ethnic groups fanned the
blaze of nationalism or racism to pursue their own policy or personal
goals. The wildfire too often gets out
of control and people use nationalism to justify all manner of horrific actions
against other human beings.

The Orthodox Church has sometimes been complicit in such
outbreaks of nationalism-inspired violence, if not by active promotion, then by
not taking a vigorous stand against it in the name of Christ. Any ideology that causes one person or one
side to feel justified in taking action that harms another person is an
anti-Christian, anti-Christ ideology.
The advance of one people over and against another does not serve the
cause of Christ. Instead it serves the
strategy of the Devil.

By not speaking out against every act of inhumanity, even
if it means speaking out against ‘our’ side, we become enablers of that
inhumanity. Our words and deeds will
find us to be servants either of our nation or our Savior; it is impossible to
serve the interests of both at the same time.
This, in my opinion, is the great test facing the Christians of Russia
and Ukraine (we could talk about Christians in the US, but I have done that
elsewhere). The Church and its hierarchs
should be holding the leadership of its nation to account, not winking and
nodding and providing tacit approval as the government foments and inhuman
foreign policy and misleads its own people through a deliberate campaign of
spin, half-truths and outright lies. The
Church, its laity and its hierarchs give the impression that they are more
afraid of what Mr. Putin might do to them than they are of Christ. Perhaps the Church and its hierarchs have too
much to lose by crossing the government (pun intended).

Ukrainian Orthodox Priests in front of Russian tank in Crimea

Christians on the Ukrainian side of this conflict have no
less momentous choices to make. The
temptation to make the Church merely the instrument of the State is almost
overpowering, especially when one’s people appear to be on the wrong side of neighbor-state-sponsored
bullying. But when Church and national
identity become confused, history shows again and again that it’s the Church
that gets used and abused by the State, and not visa versa.

I fully understand that it is incredibly difficult to
stand against the crowd, especially when it has been whipped up in a fever of nationalistic
fervor. Bad things tend to happen to
people who cannot demonstrate that they are on ‘our’ side. A few recent examples make this point in
spades: Rwanda twenty years ago, Southern Sudan this year, Yugoslavia twenty
years ago, Northern Ireland thirty years ago, Israel and Palestine right now,
Pakistan right now, etc, etc. It is,
however, no credit to Christianity or to its Lord to be leading the charge
against our enemies. Especially since
Jesus repeatedly takes the side of the oppressed, the powerless, the needy and
the poor. It is precisely at times like
this when our true loyalties are revealed.
And most of the time our true loyalty is neither to Church or State, but
to ourselves as we wrap ourselves in whatever colors will save us from harm.

Russian Separatists in eastern Ukraine

Being a follower of Jesus will cause one to take a
different posture, to choose a different road.
As Martin Luther King, Jr., said in so many different ways not so many years ago when Christians were
facing equally momentous choices in our own country, we the Church can support
the government when it chooses to do what is right, but we must stand against
it when it chooses to do wrong, especially when wrong means real suffering to
men, women and children. We the Church can
support the government when it speaks the truth, and when its analysis of the
situation rightly reflects reality on the ground; but we must stand against it
when the government by its repeated us of misinformation demonstrates that what
it declares simply cannot be trusted. We
the Church can support the government when the interests, policies and actions
of the government advance the cause of Christ; but we must stand against it
when those interests, policies and actions discourage and destroy the mission
of the Church.

I have no doubt that taking a stand for truth and love
against the policies of subterfuge and war will result in suffering for the
Christians who choose to do so. But this
is a very old choice, and Christians who have made this choice have often paid
with their lives and the lives of their loved ones. But those Christians who have chosen to side
with the government may win for a time rewards and positions and power in this
world, it will not go well when one finds oneself explaining to Christ the
Judge why one chose Mr. Putin’s interests over those of the Lord Jesus’.

The bottom line is simply this – it is past time for
Russia’s Christians, and Ukraine’s Christians (and America’s Christians, for
that matter!) to start behaving like the Christians they profess to be. There will be a very different reality on the
ground in Russia and Ukraine (and the US) when this begins to happen.